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Abstract Backgrounds We previously reported a highly sensitive method for serum human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). α-fetoprotein (AFP) and des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) are good markers for HCC. In this study, we verified the significance of hTERTmRNA in a large scale multi-centered trial, collating quantified values with clinical course. Methods In 638 subjects including 303 patients with HCC, 89 with chronic hepatitis (CH), 45 with liver cirrhosis (LC) and 201 healthy individuals, we quantified serum hTERTmRNA using the real-time RT-PCR. We examined its sensitivity and specificity in HCC diagnosis, clinical significance, ROC curve analysis in comparison with other tumor markers, and its correlations with the clinical parameters using Pearson relative test and multivariate analyses. Furthermore, we performed a prospective and comparative study to observe the change of biomarkers, including hTERTmRNA in HCC patients receiving anti-cancer therapies. Results hTERTmRNA was demonstrated to be independently correlated with clinical parameters; tumor size and tumor differentiation (P < 0.001, each). The sensitivity/specificity of hTERTmRNA in HCC diagnosis showed 90.2%/85.4% for hTERT. hTERTmRNA proved to be superior to AFP, AFP-L3, and DCP in the diagnosis and underwent an indisputable change in response to therapy. The detection rate of small HCC by hTERTmRNA was superior to the other markers. Conclusions hTERTmRNA is superior to conventional tumor markers in the diagnosis and recurrence of HCC at an early stage.

Abstract Background Fatty acid composition has become an important trait in the beef industry in terms of beef flavor and decreasing the circulating concentration of LDL cholesterol. In this study, we examined the association between polymorphisms of six genes, adipocytes-type fatty acid binding protein (FABP4), liver X receptor α (LXRα), cytochrome b5 (Cyt b5), long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (ACSL) 1, ACSL4 and diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2) and fatty acid composition. Results Sequence comparisons revealed 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms in six genes. Four of them, I74V and V110M in FABP4 and G51E and V133I in LXRα, were nonsynonymous substitutions. The associations between the genotypes and fatty acid compositions were analyzed by using 234 Japanese Black cattle. The genotypes of FABP4 I74V and LXRα V133I were significantly associated with palmitoleic acids (C16:1, P = 0.0086) and linoleic acid (C18:2, P = 0.0121) content in intramuscular fat, respectively. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the two polymorphisms of FABP4 I74V and LXRα V133I might be genetic factors in part associated with palmitoleic acid (FABP4 I74V) and linoleic acid (LXRα V133I) composition in intramuscular fat of Japanese Black cattle, respectively. Especially, FABP4 I74V had highly significant effect (P < 0.01) on C16:1 proportion, indicating that the I/I homozygote exhibited 0.5% higher percentage than V/V homozygote.

Genetic parameters were estimated to investigate the relationships between meat quality traits and fatty acid composition from 11 855 Japanese Black cattle. The meat quality traits included beef marbling score (BMS), beef color score, firmness of beef (FIR), texture of beef (TEX) and beef fat color score (BFS). The data on fatty acid composition included oleic acid and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) contents, the ratio of MUFA to saturated fatty acids (MUS) and the ratio of elongation. The heritability estimates for meat quality traits ranged from moderate (0.30) to high (0.72). The strong genetic correlations between them were useful for simultaneous genetic improvement. In addition, high heritability estimates of fatty acid composition, ranging from 0.60 to 0.63, indicated that they could also be improved genetically. The genetic correlations of fatty acid composition with BMS, FIR and TEX were weak and negative. In contrast, positive and stronger genetic correlations were found between BFS and fatty acid composition, in particular, related to the level of unsaturation (0.77 and 0.79 for MUFA and MUS, respectively). This implies that improving the level of unsaturation makes fat darker (more yellow) and thus requires balancing with BFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to estimate the direct economic losses due to the condemnation of the liver and large intestine because of internal diseases (multifocal necrosis in the liver (MNL) and inflammation of the large intestine (ILI)), and the indirect losses because of reductions in carcass performance from MNL, bovine abdominal fat necrosis (BFN) and ILI using data from 5383 Japanese Black cattle. Direct losses were estimated by multiplying the price of the condemned part by the frequency of its occurrence owing to the disease. Similarly, indirect losses were estimated as the product of unit carcass price and reduction in carcass weight (CW) due to the disease. The direct impact on the beef cattle industry from MNL and ILI was estimated at around $1.29 million (US$1 = ¥120) per year. A least-squares analysis showed that MNL had no influence on any carcass trait, whereas BFN and ILI significantly reduced CW, rib eye area and darkened the beef. ILI also reduced rib thickness. The indirect losses from BFN and ILI were estimated as a maximum of $131.7 and $256.4 per animal and around $6.26 million and $4.03 million for the industry, respectively, mostly because of the reduction in CW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cattle exhibit a range of carcass defects, including blood splash (BLS), intramuscular edema (INE), muscle steatosis (MUS), bruising (BR), trim loss (TRL) and others (OTH). These defects lower the carcass value and can result in significant economic loss to producers. We estimated the incidence, relationship with inbreeding coefficients and genetic parameters of carcass defects in Japanese Black cattle using 561 619 carcass records from Kagoshima, Japan during April 1988 through March 2011. The defect incidence ranged from 0.22% for TRL to 5.73% for BR. The incidence of MUS and BR increased from 1.21% to 6.57% and from 1.06% to 9.31%, respectively. The incidence of INE peaked at 7.44% in 1999 and decreased thereafter. We observed a positive linear relationship between the defect incidence and the inbreeding coefficients in MUS, BR and TRL ( P < 0.01). The heritabilities estimated by univariate animal model with Gibbs sampling for BLS, INE, MUS, BR and TRL were 0.24, 0.06, 0.18, 0.05 and 0.02, respectively. The contribution of farm variance to phenotypic variance was negligible (0.01 to 0.04). Significant genetic correlations of TRL were estimated with MUS (0.63) and BR (0.63). Our results suggest that genetic factors contribute to the incidence of BLS and MUS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consideration of the shortened fattening period seems to be worthwhile for the realization of profitable beef production. In this study, change of fatty acid composition of the lumbar longissimus during the final stage of fattening was investigated in Japanese Black cattle. Each of 110 fattening animals was sampled three times: the initial two samples were taken by biopsy (25.7 months and 27.5 months on average) and the final one was from carcasses (29.9 months on average). Preliminary analysis indicated that removing muscle tissues from the constant body position of the living animals should be essential for sampling. Average monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) at three sampling points were 58.1%, 58.5% and 60.5%, and the differences of the third sampling with the first and second samplings were significant. Both in steers and heifers, MUFA also increased as the fattening stage proceeded, and MUFA of the heifers at all the sampling points were significantly higher than those of the steers. The increasing rate of MUFA rose from 0.21 percentage points (pp)/ month at period 1 (from the first sampling to the second sampling) to 0.84 pp/month at period 2 (from the second sampling to the slaughter). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]